Month: November 2010

Marco Rubio: A Rising Star In The Republican Party Future, And A Warning To Progressives! :(

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Senator-elect Marco Rubio of Florida is, obviously, a rising star in the Republican party, as a result of his win over Governor Charlie Crist and Congressman Kendrick Meek last week, winning more votes than the two of them combined!

The son of Cuban exiles, Rubio is telegenic, well spoken, and a fierce advocate of the Tea Party message of less government, lower taxes, and lower spending, but he was careful not to associate too closely with the Tea Party during the campaign, although he has made clear that the Republican party must change its habits of the past on spending under President George W. Bush, if it is to retain the House of Representatives and win the Senate and the Presidency in 2012!

Rubio served in the state legislature for eight years, and was the House Speaker in 2007-2008, and surprised everyone when he challenged Governor Crist for the Senate nomination this year, and came from way behind, forcing Crist to leave the party and run as an Independent, but still failing to overcome Rubio!

Not yet 40 years of age until May 28 of next year, Rubio is already being considered a possible Vice Presidential candidate for the Republicans in 2012, and in some circles, even as a potential Presidential candidate!

His appeal would be to Hispanics all across the political spectrum, plus Tea Party Movement followers, and social conservatives, and his youth could also appeal to younger voters!

While he is anathema to Democrats and progressives, for them to ignore the potential of Rubio as an opponent would be foolhardy, as it is clear that as a senator from the fourth largest state, he will play a significant role in the future of the Republican party, Florida, and the nation as a whole!

Positive Campaigning Can Be Done: Patrick Leahy And John Hickenlooper As Examples!

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The average American is disgusted by nasty, negative campaigning, where character assassination is employed! 🙁

The effect is to discourage citizens from voting, and to make the American people cynical about politics!

But is it possible to run a political campaign and avoid negativism against your opponent? The answer is YES!

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont just won his seventh term in the Senate, and completely avoided nasty, negative campaigning!

Democratic Mayor John Hickenlooper of Denver just won the Governorship of Colorado and completely steered away from negative campaigning, a major feat considering that his major opponent was former Republican and Constitution Party nominee Tom Tancredo, one of the most despicable, divisive, nasty campaigners of all time, making his career on the issue of being an anti immigrant nativist of the most venal kind! Hickenlooper’s other opponent was Republican Tea Party nominee Dan Maes, whose campaign collapsed in the face of Tancredo, therefore weakening the GOP image in the Rocky Mountain state, as both of them ran horrible campaigns of character assassination! 🙁

But the tactic did not work, and Colorado is fortunate in having Governor-elect Hickenlooper, a man of principle and decency!

Another example of a politician who avoided negative campaigning in his Senatorial campaigns was the outstanding former New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who served as a Democrat for four terms from 1976-2000, and proved to be a man of both principle and intellect, a combination hard to find in the US Senate today!

This country desperately needs a return to civility in both political campaigns, and in the business of running the government on a daily basis, instead of the politics of personal destruction! 🙁

The Growing Inequity Of Wealth In America: New Report! :(

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In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and with Republicans wanting to extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy while calling for cuts in government spending, a new economic report by an economics professor shows just how much the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy in the past ten years have made for an extremely stratified society! 🙁

The report shows that the top 20 percent of the population now control and own 85 percent of the wealth of this country!

The next 40 percent own or control about 14 percent of the wealth!

The bottom 40 percent have less than one percent of the wealth, with many in that category having negative wealth with no hope of bettering their lives at any time in the future! 🙁

Considering the seriousness of the inequity of wealth and income in this country, how can anyone justify more tax cuts to the wealthy, which would add $700 billion to the national debt over the next ten years, requiring even greater cuts in social programs? 🙁

How can anyone justify such proposals as to end unemployment compensation, eliminate the minimum wage, privatize Social Security and Medicare, gut the new health care law, and cut education funding, among other terrible suggestions by the Republican party? 🙁

If this kind of social injustice is allowed to continue, it is really going to make many people desperate, and that endangers the public safety, as desperate people will turn to crime and bloodshed to feed and house their families! 🙁

You cannot kick people around endlessly, and show lack of concern for fellow human beings, and expect a peaceful, nonviolent response in return! 🙁

South Florida Conservative Talk Show Host Joyce Kaufman And Congressman Elect Allen West: Two “Wingnuts” That Will Make News! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

One of the most notable Tea Party Movement favorites who won election to the House of Representatives last week was Allen West, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, who was forced to leave the military after inappropriate treatment of a prisoner In Iraq in 2003, and who has been associated with right wing, pro gun groups!

With large amounts of money, including support from Karl Rove associated groups, West defeated Congressman Ron Klein of Boca Raton, in one of the most confrontational campaigns in the country! 🙁

West is a “wing nut” who will make lots of news with his comments and actions, seen by many as an African American male counterpart of Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota, who is constantly making outrageous statements and calling for extremist actions against the opposition party, and confrontation in foreign policy!

It is bad enough that West will be a “nightmare” in Congress, but he has now appointed right wing “nut job” talk show host Joyce Kaufman, who is a South Florida “wannabe” replica of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity on the local level! 🙁

Kaufman has been an outrageous talk show host on WFTL in Fort Lauderdale, spewing poison, hate, and nastiness, calling for violent actions against illegal immigrants, war against Islam, and ridiculing Democrats in despicable language, such as calling Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Wasserman Schmutz (dirt in Yiddish)! She has used similar assaulting language against other Democrats, including former Congressman Robert Wexler, and other Democrats on the national scene, and has been totally negative in every way toward President Barack Obama!

She will now gain national attention, which she craves, as the Chief of Staff to Congressman West, and she is sure to be a “lightning rod”, drawing controversy by her statements and actions, instead of being a quiet, behind the scenes figure as Chief of Staff!

It is odd for a political figure to pick a media personality to be the leader of his staff! It is also weird that Kaufman, who constantly promotes states rights and hatred of the federal government, will now be a federal government employee and be paid by taxpayers for her work!

Interesting example of total hypocrisy on her part, and it also brings to mind that she somehow expects to be a “correspondent” for her radio station while working for West, which is seen by people on Capitol Hill as a conflict of interest, and totally inappropriate, and possibly illegal to boot!

But then conservatives like to rail against government, and then feed at the public trough as they pursue their agenda to make this country a land of the elite doing everything they can to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class slipping constantly down in the direction of poverty!

The voters of the 22nd Congressional District of Florida will eventually realize the blunder they have made, brought about by large amounts of corporate cash without limit, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case in January of this year! 🙁

The States And The Economy: Calamity Ahead! :(

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As conservatives and Tea Party activists are applauding the Republican takeover of the House, many new Republican governorships, and a gain in seats in the Senate, the American people are apparently unaware of the economic calamity that faces us in the next two years! 🙁

The emphasis is on cutting taxes in a totally irresponsible way, which will increase the national debt! But of course, the GOP answer is to cut spending as well, which will mean MASSIVE cuts in public jobs in the states ( teachers, firefighters, police officers, prison guards, librarians, park workers, other state and local government agencies), adding to the unemployment rates!

It also means a tremendous drop in public services–larger number of students in each classroom, fewer firefighters to respond to fires, fewer cops to fight crime, fewer staff for prisons, fewer hours of libraries and parks, fewer locations and hours for state and local government services, which will all worsen the quality of life for all Americans! 🙁

All of the states will have massive deficits, with the larger states in true crisis mode–California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey–and with all of the above states run by Republican governors, except California, New York and Illinois!

No stimulus money will be coming from the federal government, as the GOP will have the “power of the purse”, so we will see massive deprivation and poverty, and we will be on the road to far worse conditions than we are in at the moment! 🙁

This harsh, hard line approach in the states and the federal government will bring millions more unemployment and home foreclosures, and the potential is there for the Great Depression of the 1930s to be perceived as minor, compared to what might be happening over the next two years! 🙁

Also, the danger exists that if there is great human suffering and deprivation that we could see the horrors of the breakdown of law and order, and see bloodshed in the streets of America!

This is a human crisis of major proportions, and it is hard to see “the light at the end of the tunnel”, a term from the Vietnam War era! 🙁

Independents Wanted Parties To Compromise: Instead They Have Produced Greater Polarization! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

It has often been said that Independent votes decide elections, and certainly the majority of Independents supported the Democrats in 2008, and this time backed the Republicans in midterm elections.

Independents have always been those who condemn partisanship, and call for the two major parties to cooperate and work together toward compromise, but ironically, what they have done this time is to produce total stalemate, gridlock and polarization bound to be greater than the first two years of the Obama Administration! 🙁

The “Blue Dog” Democrats and some “mainstream” conservative Republicans have been defeated, and instead we have the most liberal Democrats and most conservative and “Tea Party” Republicans becoming dominant in their parties, which means no real chance of “crossing the aisle” and moving toward compromise! 🙁

So expect no real progress on the economy or other significant issues, but rather “fireworks” and heated rhetoric over the next two years! 🙁

The question is how Independents will vote in 2012 for Congress and the Presidency. Will they blame the GOP in the House of Representatives, or the Democrats in the Senate and the White House for the failure to deal with America’s problems? Which party will be in control of the Congress and the White House in 2013?

One thing is for sure: the great “theater” of politics will be in full swing, entertaining us and mortifying us at the same time, in 2011-2012! 🙁

A Half Century Since John F. Kennedy Was Elected President!

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Fifty years ago today, John F. Kennedy was elected the 35th President of the United States!

Our youngest elected President, and the first and only Roman Catholic President to this point, Kennedy inspired the nation in a way that cannot fully be measured even after fifty years!

In a short Presidency of 1,036 days, ended by a tragic assassination which anyone who lived through it will never forget, Kennedy promoted the space program, the Peace Corps, civil rights, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the beginning of recognition that the Cold War confrontation needed to be changed in some way so as to avoid the kind of danger that the Cuban Missile Crisis represented to world peace and stability!

Kennedy gave us the thought of new beginnings and a sense of optimism, which sadly no longer exists in the highly charged world of American politics in 2010!

His memory should be honored by working toward unity and cooperation, but neither is likely anytime soon! 🙁

Difference In Image Of Obama-Biden As Compared To Bush-Cheney!

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George W. Bush has revealed in his memoir, due out this week, that he seriously considered replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the 2004 Presidential campaign, due to the image that Cheney was really making the decisions as the President, and that Bush relied on him too heavily. Therefore, replacing Cheney would improve Bush’s image as the “decider”!

This shows how insecure Bush was and is, that he would be concerned what the American public thought of him, and that he might be considered by them as not qualified for the Oval Office! His upset that Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina is further evidence of that fact!

Compare this to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and the image is VERY different!

Many might say that Obama is not qualified to be President, but only the right wing talk show hosts really spread that propaganda, and Obama has a strong enough self image that he does not spend a minute worrying about that assertion! And if he was to be upset over every character assassination which has been visited upon him by critics, he would be totally unable to function! But Obama is very secure in his own skin!

Joe Biden is playing a very important role for President Obama, and they get along splendidly, but there is no sense of rivalry between the two men, no self doubt on the part of Obama that he can do the job!

It goes to show that we need to have a better way to judge a candidate’s mental health, as that is an important part of what makes him able to handle the pressures of the Presidency!

It is clear that we have had Presidents, particularly Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, who based on their mental state, should not have been President, as they harmed the country in many ways because of their own insecurities!

Reality: The Youth Vote Dissipated As Compared To 2008! :(

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One of the major factors in the Democrats losing control of the House, and six seats in the Senate, was the deteriorating youth vote, those 18-29!

23 million young people voted in 2008, many of them for Barack Obama and the Democrats, but only an estimated 9 million voted this time, and overall, only 11 percent of young people voted!

Many young people have excuses for failing to vote, including “being busy”, “not being aware of the issues”, etc., but they are lame! 🙁

All these excuses are just that–excuses–and it has been a constant battle to convince young people that being a voting citizen is important, no matter what their political and partisan views!

All over the world, people have died for the right to vote, and the battle for the 26th Amendment was fought in the 1960s to give young people 18-21 the right to vote, and it is frustrating how people of 18-29 years of age seem to fail to realize their responsibility, and the necessity of voting!

The old saying is that people get the government they deserve, so as long as young people in large numbers fail to vote, those in government will ignore their issues and problems, until they learn of the absolute necessity of being mature citizens who realize they have an obligation to vote!

Reality: Tea Party Movement Caused Loss Of Senate Majority To Republicans!

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The Tea Party scored some major victories on Election Day, taking a substantial number of seats in the House of Representatives, making the job of Speaker Designate John Boehner of Ohio all the more difficult to accomplish anything over the next two years!

But in the Senate, the Tea Party Movement actually caused the loss of what could have been a GOP majority!

Tea Party candidates Christine O’Donnell of Delaware, Sharron Angle of Nevada, and Ken Buck of Colorado came across as unqualified and loony, and therefore lost those states which could have gone to the GOP if mainstream candidates Mike Castle, Sue Lowden, and Jane Norton had been the Republican nominees!

So these candidates, along with other Tea Party favorites Linda McMahon of Connecticut and John Raese of West Virginia, in effect, caused the loss of a Republican majority in the Senate!

And Joe Miller, by his arrogance and weird stands and statements, also allowed for the possibility of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski to win a Write In victory in Alaska, declaring opposition to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement, another slap at both!

The Tea Party will be more of a burden to the Republican Party than a blessing, and the “establishment” Republicans will soon be fully recognizing of that reality! 🙁